Do you make more money than you need? I doubt you said yes, not many people would. I'm going to show you how I increased my paycheck by $200 in about 15 minutes and it's very likely that you can do the same! Read on to learn how.

Here’s a money hack for you that made me an extra $200 every 2 weeks!

Our paychecks are usually just a percentage of what we really earn. Taxes take a huge chunk of your pay along with all kinds of little deductions.

When was the last time you took a good look at your pay stub and made sure you’re not paying for crap you don’t really need. When was the last time you checked to make sure your not overpaying on your taxes?

If you’re like most people it’s probably been a long time or possibly, you’ve never done it at all.

In honor of Spring coming up soon, I’m going to show you how to do a spring cleaning on your paycheck and possibly give yourself a big raise!

Last month I did a quick review of my paycheck and found that I was way overpaying on my taxes. I made a small change to my deductions that increased my paycheck by $200! I’ll show you how you could possibly do it as well in this post.

Here’s a picture of the change in my paychecks:

Paycheck Increase

I’m going to walk you through how you can review your paycheck and see if we can do the same thing for you!

Pull up your last paycheck and let’s take a look at what you could change. Take a look at all those deductions coming out.

Let’s go through them to see if you're overpaying or simply paying for things you really don’t need. It’s very possible if you have money just waiting to be grabbed and with a simple change you could be pocketing a lot more money each paycheck.

REVIEW YOUR FEDERAL TAX DEDUCTIONS ON YOUR PAYCHECK

This is a big one. This is an area where a lot of people are overpaying and can make a big change to your paycheck.

In fact, this is where I increased my paycheck big time ($200) just by making a simple change!

The new tax law went into affect this year (2018), beginning January 1’st, and for most people that means you’ll be paying less taxes!

They did a small adjustment to your paycheck automatically which may have given you an extra bit of money in your paycheck already, but there’s a good chance you are still paying too much to the government.

Do you get a large refund during tax season each year? If so, you’re paying the IRS too much money.

Any extra money you pay them is a tax free loan to the IRS. Who wants to pay them extra? Especially for free?

The IRS provides a handy little calculator that can help you determine how much you should be paying in federal taxes on your paychecks.

Click on the link above and fill out the fields to find out how much you should be withholding and then come back to this post.

At the end of the calculator they will tell you how many allowances you should be taking.

Now, take a look at your most recent paycheck. How many Federal Exemptions/Allowances do you have on there?

The lower the number, the more they take out of your paycheck and send to the IRS. So if the recommended number from the calculator is higher than the number on your paycheck, you’re sending to much money to the IRS.

Contact your HR department and have that changed. This will increase you pay on your next paycheck and all paychecks going forward.

This is exactly how I increased my paycheck by $200!

Now.. you will get less money back when you file your taxes, but it’s usually better for most people to have that money throughout the year rather than waiting until once a year to get your money.

The #1 complaint I here from people is that they just don’t have enough money day to day. You have to decide whether that money would be more valuable to have now and every month going forward or just in February.

Also, verify that your Taxable Marital Status is correct. If you’re married then change it to married and if you’re single make sure it says single. This affects your taxes significantly.

REVIEW YOUR INSURANCE DEDUCTIONS ON YOUR PAYCHECK

There seems to be an insurance for everything these days.. Dog insurance, house insurance, disability insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, car insurance, etc.. You name it, there’s an insurance for it.

Is all this really necessary? Not always.

It’s best to take analytical approach to insurance. I personally only have a high deductible health insurance plan and a dental plan coming out of my paychecks.

List out all of the insurance payments you have coming out. Do you really need all of them?

Just to give you an example. I don’t take vision insurance because I’d pay out more to the insurance than I would just getting an annual exam for $80.

Now, if you pay a lot for vision expenses, maybe its worth it.

I do have dental insurance because I have lots of teeth work to do and the discounts from the insurance plan make it worthwhile to have the plan because the cost of the insurance premiums are less than the cost of the dental work I have to pay for.

Take some time and do the homework to decide if you really need all of those insurances. Don’t just buy insurance because it’s available. Only buy it if you really believe the cost of the premiums would be worth it.

REVIEW THE ADDITIONAL “BENEFITS" ON YOUR PAYCHECK

What else is coming out of your paycheck?? Companies come up with the weirdest things to call “benefits.”

Other than taxes, health insurance, and dental insurance, the only other thing coming out of my paycheck is my Roth 401k deposits and my HSA deposits. That’s it.

(I do pay child support out of my paycheck, but that’s a totally different situation)

I try to keep these reoccurring payments out of my paycheck as much as possible. It’s amazing how fast your paycheck can be drained with these deductions!

Take a hard look at everything coming out of your paycheck and ask yourself, is it really worth it?

ACTION STEPS

It doesn’t take long to do a quick review of your paycheck and save some BIG MONEY! Just by adjusting my federal tax allowances I increased my paycheck by $200 in 15 minutes!

Review your paycheck, maybe you can do the same!

Pull up your latest paycheck.

Use the IRS calculator to determine how many allowances you should have on your paycheck. Contact your HR department to change them.

Review the insurance deductions coming out off your paycheck. Are they all necessary?

Review any other deductions. Are they worth the annual cost?

Enjoy your bigger paycheck!

DAVID SHEPHERD

CREATOR OF LET'S AUTOMATE YOUR MONEY

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